CinemaSavannah Presents "On Becoming a Guinea Fowl" (Zambia/UK, 2024)

Box office opens at 6. Films start at 7 PM , tix are $10, cash preferred
Director Rungano Nyoni’s second feature had its Southeastern premiere at the Savannah Film Festival after winning major awards at Cannes, London, and Chicago Film Festivals. It also received two British Independent Film Awards for Best Director and Best Actor. Her multi layered narrative magically fuses realism with the supernatural and symbolism with folklore to deliver a powerful social and political commentary through a story that gradually uncovers the buried secrets of her middle-class Zambian family. It all starts on an empty road in the middle of the night, when the protagonist Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle.
In English and Bemba with English subtitles. 99 minutes.

“The off-kilter, absurdist vibe of the picture is enchanting, but it’s rooted in deep horror: The whole movie is about the ways that cruelty and injustice become codified. Sometimes, the only way to preserve your sanity is to go a little insane yourself.” New York Magazine

“It is taut, absorbing, and, at ninety-nine minutes, ruthlessly concise. But what it bears witness to, over several days and nights of funeral rites, is a staggering endurance test, in which Shula is tasked with honoring the dishonorable.” The New Yorker

“Nyoni lets the visual and thematic pieces of her film’s dramatic puzzle fall into place gradually.” Washington Post

“But if the movie keeps us at a distance, it also knocks us off balance to bracing effect. Nyoni has a powerfully dreamlike touch.” Financial Times